Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stephen Lashley, shares a word with Prime Minister Freundel Stuart during the National Consultation on the Society yesterday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
PM: Families, institutions being put under pressure
Tue, 07/26/2016 - 12:00am
THE permeation of foreign habits into the Barbadian culture is resulting in a loss of the sense of community.
Delivering the feature address at the opening of yesterday’s National Consultation on the Society, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart stated there were various challenges facing the country.
“We now live in a world which has become very volatile. We see unprecedented violence around us. We see the family put under enormous threat and pressure. Our institutions, which are supposed to reinforce our attachment to the building of a society, have been operating under untold pressure as well. The school, church and the family, the labour movement, our political parties, all of these have been under enormous pressure as a result of a very volatile global environment.
“It is not just guns that get into Barbados, it is not just foreign goods that can get into Barbados, but alien habits can get into Barbados that undermine or [try] to colour a lot of what we do or want to do here in this country,” he stressed.
Addressing those gathered at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, the Prime Minister outlined four demons that had to be exorcised from society in order to move away from the individualist behaviour hurting the collective.
These included alienation, frustration, insecurity and disillusionment.
He noted that the push towards individualism has led to a loss of the sense of community and into those four demons, and as such, issues facing the institutions that were the foundation of society, including the family, school and church, had to be addressed. (JMB)v